Cheap rebluing

[Scribe]

Hi guys, here's a basic question. I have a Yugoslav K.98 I want to refinish. It's a pretty good shooter and has non matching parts, a good barrel and excellent bolt closure. The wood work is quite knocked about and there is very little bluing left. Before I shot it I had to clean a lot of cosmoline out of the magazine and bolt. I cost me £150 and I have found that having it reblued will cost me the same if not more.
Can anyone suggest a home rebluing kit or for that matter a reasonable alternative to bluing? I don't expect it to look as though it was built by Holland & Holland when it's done, I just want to smarten it up a little.

 

[Unclenick]

150 pounds to get it detail cleaned? Yikes! Your gunsmiths must think they can make a living at it.

None of the cold bluing methods around has met with complete satisfaction by anyone who has tried them that I am aware of, but some are better than others. If you have more time than money, the best results will come, instead, from old fashioned rust bluing. But you will need a stainless or enameled steel or glass boiling tank and will probably want to remove the barrel on the 98 because you don't want water trapped in the barrel threads (and because it allows a smaller tank to work). You can still undertake the process with the barrel in place if you desiccate the gun in alcohol or acetone afterward or leave it muzzle-up in a jar of water-displacing oil (WD-40 will work) that covers it up to the barrel shoulder.

The second good finish that can be done at home is a dark manganese phosphating job. This, however, will not yield an original-looking finish. It will be a dark gray to gray-black rugged military finish. You need access at least to bead blasting equipment to prepare the metal in this case, and also a tank for heating the solution, the same as the boiling tank for rust bluing.

If you are stuck with cold blue, I recommend you use Brownells Oxpho-blue or Van's Gun Blue. These are both phosphoric acid based. They are much more forgiving of operator errors than most, and much more protective and less prone to after-rust appearing than most. The limitation is that the finish is not as dark as a real blue. No cold blue is as tough as the real thing.

There is a newer product called Blue Wonder that also does not cause after-rust. It requires heating the metal to about 130ºF to react well. Its chemical reactivity is lower than most products in this catagory, but it produces less surface texture change (micro-etching) as a result and is easier to get a gloss finish on polished metal with. I have, however, read a number of complaints from people who couldn't get the process to work as advertised. I have only tested it on samples and can't give a thumbs up or down yet.

Nick

 

[Toney]

The finnish on it now is a lot better than a cold blue job anyday. That stuff will cause rust in a couple hours, will turn your oil rags blue everytime you clean the rifle. Before our know it your rifle will be a dull gray. And it stinks!!!

 

[tINY]

I have a few old soldiers without much blue left. I use Tetra Gun oil on them and burnish it in. Seems to build up a PTFE barrier pretty well.

under the stocks, where you cant see it, I use floor wax sometimes.




-tINY

 

[Dfariswheel]

One really good alternative to a full professional re-blue or a totally unsatisfactory home job with cold blue is to COAT the gun with one of the modern "paint" type finishes.

These are usually a epoxy-based finish that can be baked on in an oven, or simply kept warm for a day or so.

These finishes are easy to apply, solvent proof, and quite durable.
The come in many colors, including a flat black or a dark gray that looks very much like military parkerizing.

A good place to buy them from is Brownell's:
The best are the Aluma-Hyde II and Gun-Coat types.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/catsearch.aspx?c=751&p=4798

A good alternative is ordinary hardware store oil-based enamel paint.
Here, we can buy the Rust-olium brand which works very good if baked on in the oven at around 300 degrees for an hour.

 

[dfaugh]

None of the cold bluing methods around has met with complete satisfaction by anyone who has tried them that I am aware of, but some are better than others.

I disagree. I've used "cold blue" on a number of guns that were not worth the cost of having them "profesionally" done, mostly Military surplus rifles. Several have been "used and abused" for several years, and are holding up just fine. The key to using cold blue is surface preparation, get any/all oil off, use repeated applications, and polish in between.

 

[Unclenick]

defaugh,

I don't disagree that cold-blue is better than nothing, only that it never measures up to original factory finishes. I think that is why people usually express disappointment in one of the limitations or another. Also, note that I mentioned some cold blues are better than others. Toney's experience, for example, is likely to have come from the use of either a nitric or a hydrochloric acid-based cold blue. I have never had after-rust issues with the phosphoric acid based compounds like Oxpho-blue or Van's. Unfortunately, they also achieve the least depth of color.

Nick

 

[SOSARMS]

I'm not sure if this bit of info is of any help to you, but here it is anyway...
We have been working with Winchester restorations for 25 + years, and as most of you already know, the receivers never really do come out right....at least to compare to original. But i did try something different on some of the other blued pieces....Another part of our company produces products for the military , and as required , almost all pieces are required to be treated by some type of metal coating process that meets Mil Spec. So one day i sent off some varoius metal parts that i had already prepared for surface finish, so a company close by that did "black oxide" metal coating....The parts returned in exceptional condition with a very close appearance to the original....and was very inexpensive as well....the whole lot for about $30. here should be some company close to you ??? that may be willing to do this for you as well.

 

[Unclenick]

Good thought. I knew someone who got a Norinco M14 finished this way. It is a standard industrial finish process for tools (lots of allen wrenches have it); done in molten lye, I believe. It does create a good matte black.

Nick

 

[Mike in Michigan]

dfaugh, where is your signature poem from?

Off topic but I'd really like to read the rest of it and know the author's name.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Scribe]

Sosarms

Many thanks for the response, that finish seems like an alternative, though finding someone who would do it in this country might be a challenge. How would one prepare the rifle for this treatment?